Bible in a Year.

On Day 351, we delve into the practical teachings of James 3-5 on the importance of controlling our tongues, patience, and perseverance. Colossians 1-2 reminds us of Christ's supremacy and steadfastness in faith, while Proverbs 30:7-9 offers us a prayer for balance and integrity, avoiding both poverty and excessive wealth.

Chapter 3

1. Be ye not many masters, my brethren, knowing that you receive the greater judgment.

2. For in many things we all offend. If any man offend not in word, the same is a perfect man. He is able also with a bridle to lead about the whole body.

3. For if we put bits into the mouths of horses, that they may obey us, and we turn about their whole body.

4. Behold also ships, whereas they are great, and are driven by strong winds, yet are they turned about with a small helm, whithersoever the force of the governor willeth.

5. Even so the tongue is indeed a little member, and boasteth great things. Behold how small a fire kindleth a great wood.

6. And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity. The tongue is placed among our members, which defileth the whole body, and inflameth the wheel of our nativity, being set on fire by hell.

7. For every nature of beasts, and of birds, and of serpents, and of the rest, is tamed, and hath been tamed, by the nature of man:

8. But the tongue no man can tame, an unquiet evil, full of deadly poison.

9. By it we bless God and the Father: and by it we curse men, who are made after the likeness of God.

10. Out of the same mouth proceedeth blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not so to be.

11. Doth a fountain send forth, out of the same hole, sweet and bitter water?

12. Can the fig tree, my brethren, bear grapes; or the vine, figs? So neither can the salt water yield sweet.

13. Who is a wise man, and endued with knowledge among you? Let him shew, by a good conversation, his work in the meekness of wisdom.

14. But if you have bitter zeal, and there be contentions in your hearts; glory not, and be not liars against the truth.

15. For this is not wisdom, descending from above: but earthly, sensual, devilish.

16. For where envying and contention is, there is inconstancy, and every evil work.

17. But the wisdom, that is from above, first indeed is chaste, then peaceable, modest, easy to be persuaded, consenting to the good, full of mercy and good fruits, without judging, without dissimulation.

18. And the fruit of justice is sown in peace, to them that make peace.

Chapter 4

1. From whence are wars and contentions among you? Are they not hence, from your concupiscences, which war in your members?

2. You covet, and have not: you kill, and envy, and can not obtain. You contend and war, and you have not, because you ask not.

3. You ask, and receive not; because you ask amiss: that you may consume it on your concupiscences.

4. Adulterers, know you not that the friendship of this world is the enemy of God? Whosoever therefore will be a friend of this world, becometh an enemy of God.

5. Or do you think that the scripture saith in vain: To envy doth the spirit covet which dwelleth in you?

6. But he giveth greater grace. Wherefore he saith: God resisteth the proud, and giveth grace to the humble.

7. Be subject therefore to God, but resist the devil, and he will fly from you.

8. Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners: and purify your hearts, ye double minded.

9. Be afflicted, and mourn, and weep: let your laughter be turned into mourning, and your joy into sorrow.

10. Be humbled in the sight of the Lord, and he will exalt you.

11. Detract not one another, my brethren. He that detracteth his brother, or he that judgeth his brother, detracteth the law, and judgeth the law. But if thou judge the law, thou art not a doer of the law, but a judge.

12. There is one lawgiver, and judge, that is able to destroy and to deliver.

13. But who art thou that judgest thy neighbour? Behold, now you that say: To day or to morrow we will go into such a city, and there we will spend a year, and will traffic, and make our gain.

14. Whereas you know not what shall be on the morrow.

15. For what is your life? It is a vapour which appeareth for a little while, and afterwards shall vanish away. For that you should say: If the Lord will, and if we shall live, we will do this or that.

16. But now you rejoice in your arrogancies. All such rejoicing is wicked.

17. To him therefore who knoweth to do good, and doth it not, to him it is sin.

Chapter 5

1. Go to now, ye rich men, weep and howl in your miseries, which shall come upon you.

2. Your riches are corrupted: and your garments are motheaten.

3. Your gold and silver is cankered: and the rust of them shall be for a testimony against you, and shall eat your flesh like fire. You have stored up to yourselves wrath against the last days.

4. Behold the hire of the labourers, who have reaped down your fields, which by fraud has been kept back by you, crieth: and the cry of them hath entered into the ears of the Lord of sabaoth.

5. You have feasted upon earth: and in riotousness you have nourished your hearts, in the day of slaughter.

6. You have condemned and put to death the Just One, and he resisted you not.

7. Be patient therefore, brethren, until the coming of the Lord. Behold, the husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth: patiently bearing till he receive the early and latter rain.

8. Be you therefore also patient, and strengthen your hearts: for the coming of the Lord is at hand.

9. Grudge not, brethren, one against another, that you may not be judged. Behold the judge standeth before the door.

10. Take, my brethren, for an example of suffering evil, of labour and patience, the prophets, who spoke in the name of the Lord.

11. Behold, we account them blessed who have endured. You have heard of the patience of Job, and you have seen the end of the Lord, that the Lord is merciful and compassionate.

12. But above all things, my brethren, swear not, neither by heaven, nor by the earth, nor by any other oath. But let your speech be, yea, yea: no, no: that you fall not under judgment.

13. Is any of you sad? Let him pray. Is he cheerful in mind? Let him sing.

14. Is any man sick among you? Let him bring in the priests of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord.

15. And the prayer of faith shall save the sick man: and the Lord shall raise him up: and if he be in sins, they shall be forgiven him.

16. Confess therefore your sins one to another: and pray one for another, that you may be saved. For the continual prayer of a just man availeth much.

17. Elias was a man passible like unto us: and with prayer he prayed that it might not rain upon the earth, and it rained not for three years and six months.

18. And he prayed again: and the heaven gave rain, and the earth brought forth her fruit.

19. My brethren, if any of you err from the truth, and one convert him:

20. He must know that he who causeth a sinner to be converted from the error of his way, shall save his soul from death, and shall cover a multitude of sins.

Chapter 1

1. Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ, by the will of God, and Timothy, a brother,

2. To the saints and faithful brethren in Christ Jesus, who are at Colossa.

3. Grace be to you and peace from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ. We give thanks to God, and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you.

4. Hearing your faith in Christ Jesus, and the love which you have towards all the saints.

5. For the hope that is laid up for you in heaven, which you have heard in the word of the truth of the gospel,

6. Which is come unto you, as also it is in the whole world, and bringeth forth fruit and groweth, even as it doth in you, since the day you heard and knew the grace of God in truth.

7. As you learned of Epaphras, our most beloved fellow servant, who is for you a faithful minister of Christ Jesus;

8. Who also hath manifested to us your love in the spirit.

9. Therefore we also, from the day that we heard it, cease not to pray for you, and to beg that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will, in all wisdom, and spiritual understanding:

10. That you may walk worthy of God, in all things pleasing; being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God:

11. Strengthened with all might, according to the power of his glory, in all patience and longsuffering with joy,

12. Giving thanks to God the Father, who hath made us worthy to be partakers of the lot of the saints in light:

13. Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of the Son of his love,

14. In whom we have redemption through his blood, the remission of sins;

15. Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature:

16. For in him were all things created in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones, or dominations, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him and in him.

17. And he is before all, and by him all things consist.

18. And he is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things he may hold the primacy:

19. Because in him, it hath well pleased the Father, that all fullness should dwell;

20. And through him to reconcile all things unto himself, making peace through the blood of his cross, both as to the things that are on earth, and the things that are in heaven.

21. And you, whereas you were some time alienated and enemies in mind in evil works:

22. Yet now he hath reconciled in the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and unspotted, and blameless before him:

23. If so ye continue in the faith, grounded and settled, and immoveable from the hope of the gospel which you have heard, which is preached in all the creation that is under heaven, whereof I Paul am made a minister.

24. Who now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up those things that are wanting of the sufferings of Christ, in my flesh, for his body, which is the church:

25. Whereof I am made a minister according to the dispensation of God, which is given me towards you, that I may fulfil the word of God:

26. The mystery which hath been hidden from ages and generations, but now is manifested to his saints,

27. To whom God would make known the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ, in you the hope of glory.

28. Whom we preach, admonishing every man, and teaching every man in all wisdom, that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus.

29. Wherein also I labour, striving according to his working which he worketh in me in power.

Chapter 2

1. For I would have you know, what manner of care I have for you and for them that are at Laodicea, and whosoever have not seen my face in the flesh:

2. That their hearts may be comforted, being instructed in charity, and unto all riches of fulness of understanding, unto the knowledge of the mystery of God the Father and of Christ Jesus:

3. In whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.

4. Now this I say, that no man may deceive you by loftiness of words.

5. For though I be absent in body, yet in spirit I am with you; rejoicing, and beholding your order, and the steadfastness of your faith which is in Christ.

6. As therefore you have received Jesus Christ the Lord, walk ye in him;

7. Rooted and built up in him, and confirmed in the faith, as also you have learned, abounding in him in thanksgiving.

8. Beware lest any man cheat you by philosophy, and vain deceit; according to the tradition of men, according to the elements of the world, and not according to Christ:

9. For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead corporeally;

10. And you are filled in him, who is the head of all principality and power:

11. In whom also you are circumcised with circumcision not made by hand, in despoiling of the body of the flesh, but in the circumcision of Christ:

12. Buried with him in baptism, in whom also you are risen again by the faith of the operation of God, who hath raised him up from the dead.

13. And you, when you were dead in your sins, and the uncircumcision of your flesh; he hath quickened together with him, forgiving you all offences:

14. Blotting out the handwriting of the decree that was against us, which was contrary to us. And he hath taken the same out of the way, fastening it to the cross:

15. And despoiling the principalities and powers, he hath exposed them confidently in open shew, triumphing over them in himself.

16. Let no man therefore judge you in meat or in drink, or in respect of a festival day, or of the new moon, or of the sabbaths,

17. Which are a shadow of things to come, but the body is of Christ.

18. Let no man seduce you, willing in humility, and religion of angels, walking in the things which he hath not seen, in vain puffed up by the sense of his flesh,

19. And not holding the head, from which the whole body, by joints and bands, being supplied with nourishment and compacted, groweth unto the increase of God.

20. If then you be dead with Christ from the elements of this world, why do you yet decree as though living in the world?

21. Touch not, taste not, handle not:

22. Which all are unto destruction by the very use, according to the precepts and doctrines of men.

23. Which things have indeed a shew of wisdom in superstition and humility, and not sparing the body; not in any honour to the filling of the flesh.

7. Two things I have asked of thee, deny them not to me before I die.

8. Remove far from me vanity, and lying words. Give me neither beggary, nor riches: give me only the necessaries of life:

9. Lest perhaps being filled, I should be tempted to deny, and say: Who is the Lord? or being compelled by poverty, I should steal, and forswear the name of my God.